The Meeting
by crbmyenthusiasm
Summary: When Casey decides that she wants Derek she must figure out a way to get him to return her feelings.


**A/N:** This is supposed to be a fun one-shot. So I hope you enjoy…

This isn't beta-ed

**Disclaimer:** Yes.

OOOOOOOO

Emily walked into Casey's room without bothering to knock; she was anxious to see what was up. Casey had called her on the phone about two minutes earlier, sounding frantic. She had made it seem as though there was some sort of emergency, so Emily had dropped what she was doing and rushed over to the Macdonald-Venturi house expecting to smell smoke or at least see someone with a broken limb. However, nothing had seemed out of place when she arrived. Derek had been sitting in his chair and the rest of the family, sans Lizzie and Casey, had been seated elsewhere around the living room watching television with him.

Emily sighed inwardly. Casey had better explain soon- Emily had missed the end of her stories to come over.

"Casey, what's going on?"

"If you would just take a seat," Casey said, motioning towards the bed, "then we can go ahead and begin."

Emily sat on the bed beside a bored looking Lizzie, throwing her a questioning look while she attempted to make herself comfortable. Lizzie's only response was a shrug—apparently, she knew as much as Emily at this point.

Casey picked up an index card and scanned it quickly before setting it down on her desk. "This impromptu meeting was called to discuss—

"Meeting?" Emily questioned. "Okay… umm, formal much?" She asked, amused by the seriousness in her best friend's voice.

"More like, formal always," Lizzie amended, causing Emily to stifle a giggle.

Casey gave them both death glares before clearing her throat and beginning again. "This impromptu meeting was called to discuss my newfound crush on Derek Venturi," she said formally.

"Your what?" Lizzie and Emily exclaimed simultaneously.

Lizzie's jaw was practically on the floor and Emily looked a little sick. In fact, the only thing that kept them from thinking that Casey was attempting to crack some sort of tasteless joke was the look of pure sincerity on her face. To put it simply: she looked dead serious.

"And when did you come to the conclusion that you liked Derek?" Emily asked, trying to figure out how something like this could possibly happen.

"I'm glad you asked that," Casey said as she grabbed a stack of paper off her desk. She handed both Emily and Lizzie a stapled packet of papers and kept one for herself.

"Suddenly this meeting doesn't seem that 'impromptu,'" Lizzie said.

Casey heard her but chose not to respond, and instead kept her presentation rolling on. "Fifty-eight days ago Derek made some embarrassingly idiotic, but enthusiastically executed, comment about my choice of wardrobe and then became somewhat dejected when I didn't get up in arms about what he said. It struck me as odd that I didn't get upset about the insult and that is when I realized that my general anger towards Derek was starting to wane," she explained.

She paused to let her words sink in before continuing, but Emily made a gesture, signaling that Casey needed to wrap it up.

Casey's eyes narrowed at being rushed, but she continued nonetheless. "Wondering about the reason for my lack of anger led me to believe that I should keep a daily log about my encounters with Derek." Lizzie's eyebrows rose faintly. "I thought that if I was able to examine those encounters it would help me figure out what was going on, and I was right," she said, effectively answering Lizzie's unspoken question.

She gestured to the packets in their hands. "Those packets are copies of my log; some of the more important passages are highlighted." Casey flipped through her own set of papers, nodding occasionally. "It is clear that as time passed, my lack of irritation at his comments became a grudging acceptance of his behavior and personality, that acceptance then morphed into an appreciation of said behavior. Basically, I went form insulting him, to ignoring him, and now we spar good-naturedly"—she flipped to the last page of the packet—"and if you look at the last item in the log you will see that I'm about two steps away from openly flirting with him." For the first time since she had begun talking, Casey sounded nervous.

Emily looked at Lizzie for a sign, or something, but the younger Macdonald seemed to be about to run out the room.

Emily's moth opened and closed several times before anything actually came out. "Okaaay… so let me get this straight, your anger towards Derek has turned into…"

"Sexual desire," Casey readily supplied, when Emily paused.

"Right, of course," she responded wryly. "And as a result of this 'sexual desire' you called a meeting to discuss your crush on Derek, correct?"

_Jeez, what was so hard to understand?_ "Yes, that is correct."

Lizzie took a deep breath and wiped her rapidly perspiring forehead with the tail of her t-shirt. "What exactly is it about your," she gulped, "crush, that you want to discuss with us?"

"Well, first, I wanted to make sure that you two were okay with it."

Lizzie had to laugh at that. "Umm… no. I'm not going to lie to you- this is weirding me out. And, really, I'm _not_ okay with it. I mean… gross," she said, shuddering.

Casey's face folded into such a miserable expression, that Lizzie immediately began to feel a little guilty for her frank words. She looked like she might start crying or something.

"I'm not okay with it," Lizzie reiterated. "However, since you have always supported my choices, I will support you in this," she said grudgingly. "But I want it duly noted that I think anything romantic happening between you and Derek is a bad idea."

"It is so noted." It wasn't an enthusiastic display of sisterly solidarity, but Casey would take it anyway.

Casey nervously turned towards the room's other occupant. "I know that you and Derek had a thing," she began apologetically, only to be interrupted by a grinning Emily.

"That was so two years ago, and besides, I'm with Michael now- he's like a cooler Derek." Casey's frown spoke her disagreement, but she remained silent, allowing Emily to continue. "If you're crushing on Derek, then, well, I'll help you in any way I can."

Casey clapped her hands together, jumping up and down excitedly. "Great. Now that you're both on board," she eyed Lizzie warily before adding, "more or less anyway, I want you to help me get him."

"Okay, so where do you want to start?" Emily questioned, gamely.

Casey eyed her index card to refresh her memory. "Well, I thought we could toss out some ideas about what he likes, and then figure out how to use his interests to my advantage."

She reached behind her ear and pulled out a pencil and dug into her back pocket to grab her small notepad. There she stood tapping her pencil against the blank paper, waiting for them to throw out their thoughts.

"Hockey; he loves that," Emily said. "In fact, he's been playing a lot of pick up games of basketball and soccer at the park lately, so I'd say, he likes sports in general," she elaborated.

"And girls in general too," Casey said, smiling slightly. I once heard him tell Edwin, that every girl has at least one good feature."

Lizzie's eyes widened in surprise. "That was uncharacteristically nice of him."

Casey's lip curled. "Well, right after he said it, he explained that 'a good feature does not equal a good date,'" she said, using air quotes. "So don't give him too much credit."

"Don't worry, I won't."

"Enough of that, we all know that Derek has ass tendencies," Emily said, waving her hand dismissively. "Let's go ahead and finish so I can leave; Mike's coming to get me soon."

"He likes tight shirts and short skirts." When Casey and Emily regarded Lizzie oddly, she added, "On girls- Derek likes tight shirts and short skirts on girls."

"And don't forget sex- he also has nympho tendencies," Emily chimed in. "But, then, so do a lot of teenage boys," she said, shrugging.

"Emily," Casey scolded, "Lizzie's here."

"Uh, I think she knows what sex is, Casey."

Casey shook her head reproachfully at Emily. "I know, but—

Lizzie rolled her eyes. "Its okay, Casey, my tender sensibilities can take it. I won't faint or anything."

"Fine, whatever. Now back to the list," Casey said, chewing absently on her pencil. "What else does he like?"

When a long moment passed without anyone answering, Casey growled in frustration. "So far, this list isn't a real big help. What am I supposed to do, put on a halter top, a mini skirt, and some ice skates and then wait on him to walk past my room so I can jump him?" she asked sarcastically.

"No," Lizzie stated matter-of-factly. "But do you know what you can do?"

"What?" she asked eagerly.

"Stop acting like the typical Casey, with all this brainstorming-secret meeting-hatch-a-plan crap, and just go up to him, kiss him, and tell him how you feel," Lizzie suggested, sounding annoyed. She didn't want Derek and Casey together, but she didn't want to see Casey skulking around the house for the next year trying to outsmart Derek into liking her either.

Casey looked insulted, but she didn't instantly shoot the plan down.

"The kid's got a point," Emily said, nodding in agreement. "A straightforward approach could work."

Casey folded her arms across her chest and focused her attention on Lizzie. "Okay, genius," she said smartly, "let's say I kiss him and he pulls back in disgust, then what?"

"Act like nothing happened," Emily suggested jokingly.

"Look, you won't know what is going to happen until you, so just try," Lizzie said, glancing at her watch as she stood. "I've got to get to practice, but let me know how this all turns out," she said, heading out the bedroom door.

Emily gazed at her own watch. "I've got to go too; Mike's going to be at my house, in like minutes. Call me later, though."

"But—

"I'll send him up, so be ready," Emily said, before quitting Casey's room.

OOOOOOOO

As Emily headed down the stairs of the Venturi home it occurred to her that she and Lizzie were doing the right thing- Casey would never make a direct move on Derek, not, at least, without some help from her friends.

When she hit the bottom stair she sprang into action. .

"Hey, Derek," she called out, "Casey's got a surprise for you."

"Surprise?" he asked skeptically, focusing his attention on her.

Emily racked her brain searching for a lie; she hadn't thought this far ahead. "Umm… I think she found that thing you've been searching for." _That was perfect: it was vague and true._

"Later," she said, exiting before he could ask any more questions.

OOOOOOOO

After _Myth Busters_ ended Derek bounded up the stairs to see what Casey had in store for him- his money was on her and Emily trying to pull some lame ass prank on him.

But when he knocked on Casey's door and she answered wearing his hockey jersey, and nothing else, he almost fainted.

"Don't talk," she said seriously, before grabbing him by the collar and pulling him into her room.

She kicked the door shut behind him and smiled.

Before he could blink, her lips had latched onto his and she was gingerly easing her tongue into his mouth. It took them a moment, but they eventually fell into a comfortable rhythm. Derek didn't resist or attempt to push her away, or do any of the other things she feared he would do.

When they finally parted, both flustered and breathless, Casey opted not to speak and stared at him expectantly instead.

His expression remained blank, except for a telltale twinkle in his eye. "I don't know what's gotten into you, but I like it."

**THE END**

**Reviews Are Always Welcome!**


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